To establish the classical principles of riding there are techniques and simple gymnastic exercises that are easily understood by inexperienced young riders, and achievable by them, as well as being of benefit in the continued training of more experienced horse and rider combinations. The starting point is being able to give a horse a One Rein Stop. What we do in utilising the One Rein Stop, and then riding out of it, is excellent ground work in establishing an easygoing understanding of the correct and classical principles of riding.

It has been said that all you have to be able to do to ride is start, stop, go left and go right, and basically that's correct. But the problems come when you do that with a contact. You need to be able to ride your horse with just the weight of the reins as contact whether you want to ride a straight line; ride left or ride right.

When you go off the straight line it's important that the rider rides the horse, in other words, doesn't pull the horse around, and doesn't let the horse drop around, but actually rides the horse. This is the secret. As Franz Mairinger said, 'If you know how to ride a corner correctly, you know it all!'

Once you get to the stage where you're going to ride with contact, that's when you've got to be able to have control through your seat and leg. When you have contact up front and you're still controlling the horse from the back end and riding him forward into the contact, then you can ask him to go left and you can ask him to go right and you will ride your corner correctly.

Being able to give a horse a One Rein Stop should be a basic principle in learning to ride. The first thing, particularly for a young rider, is SAFETY . A young rider, or any rider for that matter, can under any circumstances quickly use the One Rein Stop to bring an unsafe situation under control. But first the One Rein Stop needs to be practised in a controlled situation.

To do this exercise it is necessary to have the bit rings joined under the chin by a light strap to prevent the bit from being pulled through the horse's mouth.

Begin by having the horse walking on a large circle. At a point on the circle where there is plenty of room, shorten the inside rein by sliding the inside hand down the rein towards the bit. Leaving the outside rein loose, quickly but smoothly draw back this shortened inside rein by taking the hand outside and behind the thigh. This movement will bring the horse's nose to the rider's boot. The rider then sits quietly in this position until the horse stops turning and stands still. At first this may take some time.

In this position the horse cannot lock any muscles, buck or rear. In this position the rider can take complete control and can dominate the horse without being aggressive or cruel in any way. It's a SUBMISSIVE, SUPPLING and RELAXING exercise stretching neck and shoulder muscles in the horse. But it's also an ultimate safety exercise.

That is the beginning, a basic beginning exercise.

To extend the exercise, you simply give away three quarters of the bend and spiral your horse out onto a 20 metre circle, just riding your horse off your inside leg getting him to take the inside rein. It's a simple technique, but will need plenty of bumping with the inside leg, especially on the horse's stiff side, before the horse freely moves forward and away from the leg.

The purpose of the outside rein in this exercise is simply on-and-off contact to regulate the pace of the horse so the horse is moving away and around the inside leg and not running away from it. This slows the rhythm at the walk, the trot and the canter as this exercise can be done and should be done at all these paces until it is easily achieved on both reins with the same amount of suppleness and response to the leg and to the outside rein without really putting the horse on the bit.

Then the outside leg controls the size of the circle. It's not the inside rein that keeps the horse in but the outside leg which stops him drifting out.

When you've got to this stage you should have your horse balanced between the inside and outside leg controlling the line you want to ride with seat and leg. The reins are now indicating the amount of bend you want and the pace you want. At this stage the rider will tend to have a slightly open inside rein and leading outside rein with a fair amount of lateral bend. The reins now form a triangle with the horse's nose balanced in the centre. I watched Mark Todd warm up Charisma for the dressage section at the World Championships at Gawler in a very educated form of this exercise. I've seen a video of Nelson Pessoa and he does a very similar exercise on all his showjumpers.

That's where it all starts off - small circles with a lot of bend and around the inside leg.

These are early techniques of learning to ride but they persist all through and even Mark Todd and Nelson Pessoa use them when preparing for eventing and show jumping respectively, albeit in a more educated form.

Glennis Scott Barrey has also described basically the same movement, an educated form of the one rein stop, and Matthew Dowsley, more recently, has written about it. He doesn't take the horse's nose to the boot but he does give it a bit of bend, again an educated form of this exercise. If this basic exercise is fully understood, then those more educated exercises will work much more correctly.

When necessary you will need to repeat these basic exercises, with a young horse, a little bit of walking, just a warm up and then a one rein stop. You'd probably give a one rein stop two or three times early on, but then once that's working fairly well, a small circle, that's an educated form of a one rein stop and also softens the neck and shoulder muscles. The size of the circle is appropriate to the stage in the education of the horse. Once your horse responds at walk, trot and canter reasonably well on both reins, and is taking your inside leg, moving away without resisting, then you can take the contact with the outside rein until you've got your horse just flexed and bent on your circle and he should be nicely on the bit. If he's not then you go back and repeat the exercise until you can put the horse on even contact on both reins on a 20 metre circle. He's ambidextrous, he's become even on both reins.

This is the basis of it all, you gradually progress until you can ride smaller circles and have your horse on the bit and the end result is to ride a six metre circle correctly with your horse balanced and accepting the contact.

During this period of gymnastic and suppling exercises, I would be working on transitions, rhythm and straightness and would also be beginning lateral work of leg-yielding, shoulder-in and quarters-in. Remember...

 

THE STARTING POINT: THE ONE REIN STOP
A one rein stop - a basic principle and safety exercise Shorten the rein by taking the hand outside the thigh and take the nose to the boot leaving the outside rein loose Rider in complete control without being aggressive or cruel A submissive, suppling & relaxing exercise.

 

THE ONE REIN STOP AND RIDING OUT OF IT
Give away three quarters of the bend and spiral your horse out into a 20 metre circle Ride the horse off the inside leg taking the inside rein Do at walk, trot and canter

 

REINS
Ride the horse with just the weight of the reins whether you're travelling straight, to the right or to the left. The outside rein is simply on and off contact to regulate the pace of the horse Reins indicate the amount of bend and pace you want.

 

EDUCATED FORM OF THE ONE REIN STOP
If this basic exercise is fully understood, more educated exercises will work more correctly.

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